EUROP E 1815-1914: CR MUNITY AND ORD ERING TH E WORLD Martti Koskenniemi and Bo Str?th (eds) University of Helsinki Project Europe 1815-1914 EUROP E 1815-1914: CR MUNITY AND ORD ERING TH E WORLD Martti Koskenniemi and Bo Str?th (eds) EUROP E 1815-1914: CR MUNITY AND ORD ERING TH E WORLD The Shadow of the Past and Future of the Present The research project ‘Between Restoration and Revolution, National Constitutions and Global Law: an Alternative View on the European Century 1815–1914’(EReRe) funded by the European research Council was established at the University of Helsinki in 2009 with the goal of providing an alternative view on the European century that began with a spectacular peace under the motto of ‘never again’ and ended with the First World War. From the outset, the assumption was that the century was traversed by themes and tensions that in one way or another continue to dominate ideas about European peace and progress today. These need to be highlighted so as to enable an adequate historical understanding of the difficulties of the present moment, including the nature of the alternatives faced by European decision-makers today. The focus reaches beyond European institutions, in order to approach the themes and tensions that overarch the past two centuries in their global context. The volume argues that a realistic history is needed that rejects any grand narrative about modernity, progress or liberalism (to name some popular contestants) embedded in the eenth century. If we have had this time as not beginning with the revolution in 1789 this is because we have wanted to avoid accepting perhaps the most persistent foundation myth with which European institutions have preferred to decorate themselves. Concentrating on the restoration and the search for European stability in 1815 does not mean a focus on the spectacular exception, but on what appears as normal: the imposition or order from above. But from the choices of the men of V
